Okay, this started with me writing this. https://steemit.com/philosophy/@pomperipossa/so-you-re-an-anarchist
Which prompted my good friend Kenny to write this. https://steemit.com/anarchy/@kennyskitchen/as-long-as-it-s-voluntary-and-non-aggressive-who-gives-a-damn-how-others-live-a-response-to-pomperipossa-s-so-you-re-an
As I started writing my reply to him I realized a comment wouldn't do it, so I’ll just write a blog post. Then I realized that one blog post wouldn't cut it either so here's part one. :)
I didn't think you were going to answer my questions because I don't think you're against the free market. I didn't actually direct the questions to those who “identify as anarchists, but not as anarcho-capitalists.” It was almost what I asked. The questions were directed to those who identify as anarchists but are against the free market. As you state in your title “As long as it's voluntary & non-aggressive, who gives a damn how others live?”
The reason I’m such a strong advocate of the free market is the same reason that I’m a strong advocate of the fact that none has the right to not feel offended. If the government says that offensive speech is illegal and offensive speech is to have nazi-sympathies you might think that's all good and well. After all, no good person likes national socialism, right? A lot of people are offended by national socialists so what’s the problem? Well, let’s say you are an advocate for veganism and you don’t want people to consume animal products. You might have a blog dedicated to spreading your ideas.
Now let's say that the meat and dairy industries feel threatened by by the rise in the number of vegans. They could change their practices and reduce the amount of animal cruelty. They could decrease their use of antibiotics. They could farm grass fed animals instead of feeding them soybeans. They could invest in advertisement about how much more humane they are and now, how much healthier their products are, how they aren’t contributing to deforestation of the rainforest to grow soybeans.
This would be very expensive and it would force the industries in question to increase their prices. Now the consumers would eat fewer animal products because they wouldn't be able to afford it or they would rather eat alternative foods. This is the opposite of the goals of the industries. So what could they do instead? They are in the business of making money, they are accountable to their shareholders, People's retirement portfolios would get crushed! Workers would lose their jobs. The heads of CEO:s would roll.
As you might suspect it’s not likely that the industries would make this changes, not with all these incentives stacked against them. A much more likely scenario would be for the industries, unions, shareholders and any other interest groups that felt threatened by the rise in veganism to lobby the government to make it illegal to claim that veganism is a more ethical way of living. After all, a lot of people feel offended if you tell them that they are immoral because they eat meat. It is most certainly offensive speech! Since the government has already set a precedence and declared that you have a right to not be offended the meat and dairy industries have a pretty good case.
Unfortunately, this means that if you keep blogging the way you were to spread veganism you will now be a criminal just like the national socialists.
Wait a minute, what does this have to do with free markets and the questions that started all this you might ask yourself! Well, I’ll try to answer that in part two. Thanks for reading!